Silk Flowers 101
Is There Silk In Contemporary Silk Flowers? Can Real Touch Or Floramatique® Be As Good As Fresh Flowers?
Real touch silk flowers.
1. Imitations of real, fresh cut flowers, looking decisively "fake", 'cut it' no more - they became largely abandoned and ignored at the onset of the twenty first century.
- Hibiscus Florals was the first ever floral studio to use newly emerging real touch artificial flowers in bridal floral arrangements. It was in 2003. Brides-to-be, both in Canada and America, saw them in person already in the beginning of 2004: at Canada's Bridal Show in Toronto in January 2004 and at Great Bridal Expo in Long Island (Nassau County), New York in February 2004. And by 2005 we had developed a diverse array of designs exclusively with real (fresh, soft, true, natural) touch flowers for our site, long before any of online sellers of traditional, varying in quality silk wedding flowers, had even noticed the birth of a new branch of the wedding floral industry.
- No other online wedding 'silk' florist had shown real touch flowers in any of the arrangements they were selling, neither on any of the auction sites and/or on their websites, before 2006. Years had passed until we saw the first trend-follower online.
- We have been using on our website, already since the first part of 2005, phrases: real touch, new generation, grade 6 (combined together and/or standing alone) and with each and every individual product detailed description - anywhere we introduced these modern, state-of-the-art man-made flowers in our artificial wedding flower arrangements. Moreover, you could read here, also as far back as in 2005, the cornerstone article (since kept up-to-date with new industry information) of the webpage you are now reading:What Are The Quality Grades For Silk Flowers? (see further down the texts). This article clearly classified and defined six quality grades of silk flowers, the highest, new generation/ real touch/ grade 6 included.
- We have been closely following, into its seventh year now, growing assortment, innovations and maturing of real (fresh, true, soft, natural) touch flowers (along with traditional but improved 'silks'), presently made in dozens of factories in the Orient. And we observed the emergence, in 2006, of a "new kid on the block" - Floramatique®.
- Since our 2003 introduction them to the bridal market, amplified by our subsequent, focused website presentation, contemporary lifelike and ultra realistic faux wedding flowers of real touch quality have eventually started becoming known and sought after. Our well-planned and sustained efforts translated into an accelerating number of sales for us. Moreover, brides-to-be educated themselves with the information presented on our highly visible on the Net site - they read the text and saw high-resolution pictures of our work. And they started asking their peers and other florists, both locally and online, if they knew where to get/ if they carried real touch 'silk' flowers, often showing pictures of our bouquets to them. This way the awareness has been growing about new, highest quality 'fake' bridal floral arrangements, that have differed so much from ordinary artificial wedding flowers, plentiful at auction sites and various websites. And it was just a matter of time when some intrigued entrepreneurs/florists in Canada, America, Britain, Australia and elsewhere started sourcing these new faux flowers and eventually tried to follow the trend, spearheaded by our online showcase, in their work.
- Keep in mind that florists and floral industry newcomers did not know about/did not see the ultimate highest quality, new generation artificial bridal arrangements until they 'educated themselves' through the information and pictures they found on... our website. Subsequently, the new 'lingo', precisely naming and differentiating quality grades of artificial flowers, has been progressively adopted by brides-to-be and online and 'brick and mortar' wedding florists alike.
What Are Real Touch Artificial Flowers And How Are They Made?
What Are Artificial Flowers Known As Floramatique®?
Real Touch And Floramatique® Artificial Flowers - Which Ones Are Better?
Which Silk Flower Arrangements To Choose?
Man-made flowers cover a broad spectrum - from low-end to very high quality. You can observe the same wide range of quality in silk flower arrangements available from online and off-line florists.
Low-end artificial flowers are sometimes dotted with tiny balls of acrylic to imitate droplets of water (dew drops) and can be bought cheaply. The petals of poor quality fake flowers do not hold their shapes and often fall off the stems. Upon close examination the dyes are mostly uneven and the edges easily fray. When used in silk floral arrangements, they appear very fake and tacky.
If quality is not a big concern for you, then many low value artificial flower arrangements can be found on auction sites where bidding prices start very low. Indeed, the price range may be a good indicator of the quality level you get.
Medium quality range silk flower arrangements may look like the "real McCoy" from a distance (and on online pictures without an adequate zoom-in feature, despite how well photographed) but do not pass the test of credible lifelike appearance upon closer scrutiny. Therefore, many online claims of "highest", "premium", "finest" or "deluxe" quality silk flower arrangements cannot be substantiated, if not supported by a presence of high resolution, detailed, close-up pictures.
High quality silk flowers in arrangements have more lifelike appearance, ranging from pretty realistic to ultra realistic. Their stems are individually wired and wrapped, and require little effort to bend and work with. Top of the spectrum silk floral arrangements are the ones you can see up close at some exclusive hotels, upscale restaurants, art galleries and high-end boutiques. They are custom made and can be often mistaken by an untrained eye for fresh ones. We utilize the same top quality artificial flowers in silk flower arrangements we create for our customers.
The most diligent manufacturers of artificial flowers carefully examine how individual blooms resemble their natural counterparts. Then they scrupulously recreate their botanical accuracy by using cutting edge technology processes.
Top quality silk flowers in bridal floral arrangements.
Satisfied bride Holly Malcik with Hibiscus Florals silk wedding flowers. View larger images of her flowers here.
Take a look at the lifelike grade 6/ real touch mango calla lilies used in our Mango Tango Collection (in the upper photo from 2004) that brightened so many destination weddings of our customers. This is our original, 'timeless' 2004 package design (which we re-launched in 2007 as New Mango Tango Collection with addition of amazing Floramatique® calla lilies). You will find it here very difficult to distinguish these callas from the fresh ones. These artificial tropical flowers consist of the advanced polymer mix (with the outer real touch surface coating) so they have lifelike elasticity and the velvet-like softness (as the fresh cut calla lilies)
What Are The Quality Grades For Silk Flowers?
We organized and refined quality grade classification of artificial flowers in 2005. Now you see cited and repeated on the Net term grade 6/ new generation applied to highest quality silk/artificial flowers - we invented it and coined it. We associate that term only with real touch and so far with just a few of Floramatique® flower kinds.
Let us first go quickly through the quality grades of artificial flowers in a manner you can relate to:
- dollar stores: grade 1, sometimes 2;
- flea markets: grades 1 and 2;
- craft sections of department stores: grades 2 (mainly) and 3 (sparsely);
- individual and chain craft stores: predominantly grade 3, if grade 4, rarely, and at a high price.
Grade 3 is made out of cheaper materials. Therefore shapes do not hold that well and edges (of petals) frail easily. The color is not uniform due to using cheaper dye lots. The texture and consistency of lower quality materials does not allow recreating details with precision in the manufacturing process.
There is a big difference, in appearance and price, once you move from grade 3 to 4.
Grade 4, made with better materials have a pretty realistic look, with all details recreated well (petals, leaves, stems, joints, thorns, etc.), in thickness, shapes and colors. Shapes do not "limp" and flowers have a natural look in color and texture.
Grade 5 are made with such degree of precision that even natural flaws in fresh flowers are copied. Very close to 100% of botanical accuracy and the most lifelike look.
A Word Of Caution: Inferior Quality Of Artificial Flowers, False Claims & Deceptive Information
- Fake, counterfeit real touch artificial flowers appeared on the market by the end of 2005. Their petals have more rubbery feel to the touch, instead of a more natural one. They do not have that high-tech coating, giving them fresh to the touch feel, applied. As they are made out of common materials, like plain rubber, industrial-grade latex or hard polyester, their petals are more rigid - a far cry from the bending flexibility of authentic / new generation real touch artificial flowers. They are also often imprecisely cut from the mold and you can see that by examining closely edges of the petals.
- You can see lately some better made rubber, foam and latex knockoffs at craft stores, even with fresh touch and/or true touch tags attached. Their petals and leaves are not thin enough and not flexible enough to resemble those of fresh cut flowers and their level of botanical accuracy is not sufficient enough to pass as grade 6/ real touch flowers.
- Then there are what we call second rate real touch flowers. Although their petals may in fact resemble the real/ natural feel to the touch, the quality of the other components is visibly inferior ('fake' looking). Their stamens, stems and joints are usually poorly assembled and glued. These cheaper versions are being often presented by 'newbie' florists, who have not yet seen authentic, premium quality artificial grade 6/ real touch flowers as the true McCoy.
- Stay away from online 'silk' florists, new to the highest quality artificial bridal floral arrangements, trying to tell you that others charge much higher prices for the same bouquets as they (can) make. In fact, they may offer you amateurishly crafted, often small and skimpy bouquets with just a few/ several flowers and a very limited choice of flower kinds and colors, often inexpensive rubber and latex real touch knockoffs, or even traditional 'silks' they try to pass to you as real touch flowers. You can easily assess what they can really create by looking carefully at pictures of their work, while paying close attention to the number, selection of flowers and design complexity level (if any) in their bouquets. If their website photographs are not large enough to see the flowers' small details, they may try to conceal their true quality.
- More and more of online 'silk' florists display false date portions of their copyright notices in their websites' footers or untrue statements of how long they have been in existence. Examples: 1). A certain website shows copyright notice 1999-2009 despite the fact that their site's domain name was first registered in the fall of... 2008. 2). Other site claims to have been established in 2000 but did not have the online presence before... August of 2005. 3) The footer of another website indicates 1997 as their inception but they had not been present online... before November of 2005.
- You could look at pictures of, for example, "fresh alternative" wedding flower arrangements. Fresh alternative is a vague and potentially very misleading term (never properly defined for the flower content and quality differences), that one of online florists has been using for quite some time. But, she has not used on her website, until the second part of 2008, any of real (fresh, true, soft, natural) touch or Floramatique® terminology. Having had and used hardly any authentic real touch artificial flowers in her work in the past, she was fairly recently "forced" to switch to them by potential clients (educated on our website) wanting all their flowers be of genuine real touch quality. So you could see nicely air-brushed, color-enhanced and dull-edged images (a method of photo-processing intended to fool viewers). And (not talking here about a design or a lack of thereof, or the appearance of arrangements) you could incorrectly assume that all main flowers in them were of true real touch qualty. But what you did not know is which of the pictured blooms could pass the test of real touch authenticity, which were the real touch knockoffs and which were just ordinary silks. You could have examined and assessed their differences, if they had been displayed in non-retouched, close-up and high-resolution photographs, or you could have seen them in person. As a result of the described above marketing deception, run for years, many brides who purchased their "fresh alternative" bridal floral arrangements were convinced that they were getting all real touch flowers in them. But they could have not known that they were conned even after receiving their flowers, not having seen before in person authentic real touch flowers and not having compared them physically to ordinary, higher quality silks, or real touch knockoffs.
- Do not be conned by a bogus and fairly recent claim of (pretending to be) "always industry leaders" (up to and into 2006 still selling on Ebay - then a source of cheap, predominantly low-grade bridal silks) that they were replacing silks with natural touch flowers as soon as they became available. No "replacements" of notable numbers (of traditional 'silks') with genuine real touch artificial flowers were shown online in their work until well into 2007 (and none of Floramatique® until the last quarter of 2008). And they did not even mention on their website about real (fresh, true, soft, natural) touch or/and Floramatique® flowers until... the second part of 2008. Did they, despite wanting to be now perceived as 'trend-setters', intend to keep the knowledge about these great quality flowers and that they had them "under wraps" for so long? But how could brides-to-be learn about the real feel to the touch flowers, what they were, and how to ask for them by their proper real (natural, fresh true, soft) touch synonym names, if they had not, in the past, read about them (accurate 'lingo' and descriptions included) and seen plenty of them displayed in bridal floral arrangements somewhere else?!
- Be very cautious when dealing with online sellers who display photographs of fresh cut flowers' designs (not theirs), either posing as silk floral arrangements, or added for "inspiration"/"ideas". Moreover, publishing someone else's pictorial and/or written material without clearly indicating the source of each photograph and text is a copyright infringement.
- Beware of 'newbie' online silk florists assuring you that they have been "specializing" in real touch/ soft touch/ natural touch and/or Floramatique® flowers for a considerable period of time, but their websites (online most probably for no more than a year) show none, one, or just a few arrangements with these flowers, pictured. You would not want an amateur, wannabe florist experimenting and learning on your bride's bouquet.
- Do not be mislead by fresh florists advertising online (craigslist, kijiji, etc.) that they also "specialize" in high quality silk wedding flowers, and in real/ natural touch and Floramatique flowers in particular. When you visit their websites you may not see even a single 'fake' bridal bouquet. But, while looking at their photographs of arrangements with supposedly realistic artificial flowers, you may not realize that all of them consist of fresh cut flowers only.
Artificial Flowers: How It All Started
For as long as humans walked the earth, people have been trying to recreate Nature's flowers using many kinds of materials.
Some of the artifacts found in ancient caves indicate that we made artificial flowers from wood shavings, stones and even human hair. Today, hand-crafting of flowers is still an art.
Advantages Of Silk Floral Arrangements
The technology for making artificial flowers that imitate nature to pretty fine details has been in existence for just several years. And it has been improving rapidly but steadily. It remains to be seen what new levels of detail accuracy with silk flowers will be achieved by our suppliers using modern machine tools and expert know-how. At present, artificial flowers of new generation/ real touch and (some of) Floramatique® quality are the pinnacle of the ultra realistic look and genuine feel to the touch.
Hibiscus Florals is thrilled to be in the forefront of this exciting and growing business. Creating beauty with 'silk' floral arrangements for weddings is our passion, and we are very good at it. The convenience of everlasting artificial flower arrangements is not overlooked by our satisfied customers. Especially by our destination brides who often praise us for relieving their stress by providing them with maintenance-free bridal bouquets of silk flowers and other wedding flower arrangements they can travel with.
Using high quality synthetic flower arrangements for wedding ceremonies and receptions, and to decorate living or work spaces, as the great alternative to real ones, is a growing trend. By buying 'silk' florals you can make an environmentally conscious decision. No water, soil or fertilizer has to be used to grow and keep them alive, unlike for the fragile and perishable wonders of nature; and that for just a moment in time.
Jackie & Mark, Owners
This article is a copyrighted material. It was written on the basis of extensive travels, research, studies and first-hand experience of the owners and staff of Hibiscus Florals. Therefore, it is our company's proprietary intellectual property. We uploaded the original, first version of this material onto our site in May 2005 and we have been updating it ever since. Any unauthorized use/copying it in excerpts or in full, writing variations/modified versions of is prohibited.

